


Of Blind Dates and Breadsticks

by thoroughlynerdy



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blind Date, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 03:18:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16824049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoroughlynerdy/pseuds/thoroughlynerdy
Summary: Taekwoon is waiting on Jaehwan when suddenly someone else plops down into the seat across from him apologizing for being late.





	Of Blind Dates and Breadsticks

**Author's Note:**

> There is one "f-bomb" in here, but the content itself does not warrant a higher rating.

Jaehwan is late. Taekwoon has been here for at least fifteen minutes and the waitress just brought him another basket of free breadsticks because she probably thinks he’s been stood up. Which he has, even if he and Jaehwan aren’t dating since the reason he isn’t here is because he is probably with Wonshik, his actual boyfriend. But free breadsticks are free breadsticks, so Taekwoon snags another then takes a more aggressive bite than the situation really warrants.

Five minutes (and another breadstick) later, Taekwoon heaves a sigh and shifts to grab his wallet and at least leave the nice waitress a nice tip, when suddenly there’s someone dropping into the seat across from him and Taekwoon just blinks because this is the most attractive person he’s ever seen, but he doesn’t know who the stranger is. 

“I’m so sorry I’m late!” Most Attractive Person Ever says.

Taekwoon blinks back at him, then glances around searching for, well, he’s not sure what, but maybe Jaehwan with a hidden camera or something. “Uh,” he responds eloquently.

“Oh, right! I’m N, well, Hakyeon now that we’re finally meeting in person.”

“Hi?” Taekwoon asks, giving another surreptitious look around. Still no cameras.

The waitress reappears giving Taekwoon an impressed look before asking for their drink orders and dropping another basket of breadsticks between them. Hakyeon orders them a bottle of red to split during dinner, and barrels on through with ordering an entrée.

Taekwoon follows suit, ordering spaghetti Bolognese because he doesn’t know what else to do.

The waitress disappears, leaving them alone again and Taekwoon is still waiting for someone to pop out and start laughing at him. His mind is racing, but none of the thoughts will come out of his mouth and he’s starting to feel a little panicky because of it. He reaches for his phone at the edge of the table, about to text his friends and see which one of them set this up, but Hakyeon’s voice stops him.

“I’m sorry, I only know you as Leo, can I have your real name since you know mine now? It’s only fair.”

“Taekwoon,” he replies softly, grasping onto the lifeline Hakyeon has unknowingly thrown to him.

“Taekwoon,” Hakyeon repeats, smiling so much his eyes curve into crescents. “It’s nice to meet you, Taekwoon.”

It’s a lovely smile, and Taekwoon is distracted for a few seconds before he remembers he should let this poor guy know he is apparently on the wrong date. “I’m not—” Taekwoon tries to say, to let Hakyeon know he’s made some insane mistake and Taekwoon is not actually this ‘Leo,’ but the waitress reappears with their bottle of wine and he snaps his mouth shut with an audible click.  
She uncorks the bottle and offers to pour, but Hakyeon waves her off with that beautiful smile of his and she melts under his gaze as well.

“My niece held me up,” Hakyeon explains while pouring. “I was visiting my sister, and she just latched onto me, she’s four now, and she just absolutely wailed when I tried to leave, and it took a while to calm her down.”

Taekwoon nods sympathetically, “Minyulie, my nephew, can be like that too. It’s so sad to see them cry and know you’re causing it even when you know you’re not doing anything wrong.”

“Exactly!” Hakyeon sends him another blinding smile before taking a sip of his wine. “But we’re not here to talk about kids, right?”

“Uh, right,” Taekwoon stutters and cringes slightly at his own awkwardness. Why can’t he just tell this nice stranger the truth?

“What exactly do you do? You were so cryptic in the messages,” Hakyeon’s fingers run along the rim of his wine glass as he watches Taekwoon intently.

_This is it_ Taekwoon thinks. This is where he confesses to Hakyeon that he’s not really Leo and then leaves as quickly as possible to save both of them (mostly himself) further embarrassment. But does he really have to? 

“Not to bring it immediately back to kids, but I work as an elementary school music teacher,” the words are out of Taekwoon’s mouth before he’s consciously decided to keep up the pretense. He almost wants to take them back, but then Hakyeon smiles and it’s more than Taekwoon can take.

“Really?” Hakyeon seems genuinely delighted by this discovery.

“Yeah, it’s awesome. I get to play music and make them smile all day,” Taekwoon ducks his head as Hakyeon’s smile ratchets up a few more notches. Taekwoon’s heart nearly stops at the sight. He wants to continue the conversation, ask Hakyeon about himself, but he doesn’t know how much he can ask before it gets suspicious. How much had Hakyeon and ‘Leo’ talked about? He felt like he was walking through a minefield and one wrong move could blow everything up. He treads carefully, “What about you?” he figures asking the same questions as Hakyeon is a fairly safe bet.

“I work at ArtBox, which is actually kind of dangerous for me sometimes,” Hakyeon replies with a wry smile. “I love making things, and we sell so much I would love to experiment with that it’s hard for me not to sink all of my extra funds right back into the store.”

“That sounds fun too though,” Taekwoon replies and tries to snag another breadstick, but Hakyeon has moved them out of reach.  
“It can be. Someday I’ll have my crafting empire and be South Korea’s answer to Martha Stewart, but for now, I have to pay the bills.”

Once their food arrives, Taekwoon goes quiet, fully invested in inhaling his meal and enjoying every bite. He can feel Hakyeon’s eyes on him, and chances a look, only to find the other smiling fondly at him around his own bite of food.

“You know it’s not going anywhere, right?” Hakyeon teases.

Taekwoon feels the blush creeping up his neck but pretends not to. It’s not his fault if his food is delicious and he wants to enjoy it. “I’m conditioned to eat quickly,” he returns. “I may not have my own set class, but we still only get 35 minutes to eat.”

Hakyeon hums thoughtfully and takes a sip of his wine. “What’s your best story from this week?” he asks.

“Best story?” Taekwoon’s brow furrows in confusion. He knows Hakyeon is trying to keep him talking, knows he probably isn’t that interesting with sauce on his face and silence filling the space between them. “From work?”

“Yeah. Best meltdown or the craziest thing a kid said to you or did in class,” Hakyeon clarifies.

“I started teaching the third graders the recorder this week, “Taekwoon begins.

“They still do that?” Hakyeon asks, eyes widening in surprise. “But why?”

“It’s one of the easiest instruments to learn,” Taekwoon shrugs and takes another bite. “The spaces between the holes are easy for small fingers to navigate and make the right notes.”  
Hakyeon’s whole face lights up at his words, “You are the only person who has ever given me an actual answer to that question and I will be forever in your debt because of it.”

“You’re welcome then,” Taekwoon deadpans. “Anyway, we were learning the classic “Hot Crossed Buns” but these five boys were just a little too enthusiastic about learning. I’ve never had to confiscate recorders before, but I made them sit and mime the playing and told them they would have to do that for the performance in front of the parents if they couldn’t learn to control their volume. Several  
eardrums were saved that day.”

“I bet you’re a pushover,” Hakyeon giggles and at the sound Taekwoon can feel himself falling a little more for the other man. 

Which is bad because this is the wrong date. Hakyeon thinks he’s someone else and he should really, really confess now before it gets even worse.

“We should get dessert,” Hakyeon interrupts his train of thought and flags down a server for some menus. 

“Are we going to split a dessert?” their waitress asks, eyebrows waggling at Taekwoon.

“No,” he replies curtly and draws a laugh from Hakyeon. “I want a tiramisu and a hazelnut latte.”

Hakyeon orders lemon cake and a jasmine tea and the waitress disappears.

Taekwoon’s phone buzzes at the edge of the table and he sends Hakyeon a quick look before he grabs it and stands quickly. “I’m going to run to the restroom. I’ll be right back.”

He doesn’t wait for an answer before he seeks the sanctuary of the toilets and the privacy they have to offer. Once hidden, he sees the last notification he got was a text from Jaehwan.

**sorry about missing dinner. hope you’re not still waiting on me**

_I’m pretty sure I jacked someone’s blind date because of you. Idiot._

Taekwoon huffs when a string of confused emojis fill his screen. He pulls up Jaehwan’s contact info and presses the call button instead.

“Fuck you and your boyfriend,” Taekwoon says in lieu greetings and is met with barks of laughter from both Jaehwan and his aforementioned boyfriend, Wonshik. 

“Wow, someone is hostile. Me standing you up wasn’t Shik’s fault, rehearsal ran late, so leave him out of this,” Jaehwan counters with a laugh. “Please though, explain how exactly you stole someone’s date?”

Taekwoon huffs again and pinches the bridge of his nose. “While I was waiting this guy sat down with me and my brain malfunctioned because he is literally the hottest person I have met in my life. He apologized for being late and introduced himself and I just sort of went along with it.”

Taekwoon hears a brief scuffle from the other end of the line and then Wonshik’s voice, “But how has he not figured it out yet?”

“Apparently, they used screen names or something, I don’t know. What I do know is that he is nice and funny and I am in way over my head because now I can’t actually ever date him because this whole thing started out as a lie and he’s never going to forgive me,” Taekwoon whines.

Jaewan has evidently snatched the phone back because it is him who answers. “Calm down. He’s the one that sat down, right? He didn’t confirm who you are, so technically this is his fault. Don’t tell him yet. Wait until he asks.”

“Why would he ask?” Taekwoon questions, face scrunched with confusion.

“Exactly! Why should he? So, I repeat, don’t tell him.”

Taekwoon hangs up without a reply and washes his hands before returning to the table. Hakyeon is sitting, fiddling with his own phone and Taekwoon’s stomach drops. He’s probably texting the real Leo and Taekwoon can’t take the embarrassment of Hakyeon calling him out in front of all of these people.

“I’m sorry,” Taekwoon says voice barely a whisper as he stops behind his chair, but doesn’t sit back down. 

“It’s fine,” Hakyeon shrugs, setting his phone down and replacing it with his fork. This looks delicious. So does yours though, so if you wanted to trade a bite, I wouldn’t say no,” he says finally glancing at Taekwoon and seeing that he hasn’t sat down yet. “Everything okay?” he asks, eyes widening in concern.

“I can’t do this,” Taekwoon replies.

“We don’t have to share?” Hakyeon asks confused. “I mean, I can order a tiramisu to go, or something—”

“No, not dessert. I can’t keep lying to you. I’m not Leo. I don’t know Leo. I’m just Taekwoon.”

Hakyeon opens his mouth to reply, but Taekwoon doesn’t let him. “I’m sorry I lied to you and let you think I’m someone I’m not. Everything I told you was true, but I’m not who you were expecting and that’s not fair to you. I’ll take care of the bill, so please, don’t worry. I’m sorry again,” he turns to leave, but before he even gets two steps a strong hand on his wrist stops him.

“I already took care of the bill,” Hakyeon says softly.

That wasn’t the response Taekwoon was expecting. He turns, ready to see anger on Hakyeon’s face, but instead he sees a soft, sheepish smile. 

“I should also be the one apologizing, not you. I started this whole thing and it’s my fault we’re here now. Here, sit down with me and eat dessert. Let me explain.”

Taekwoon lets himself be guided into his chair and picks up his fork mechanically. Hakyeon sinks into the chair next to him instead of the one across from him.

“I wasn’t here for a date,” Hakyeon begins.

Taekwoon’s eyes narrow at his words.

“I was having dinner with some friends when I looked over and spotted the prettiest guy I have ever seen in my entire life steamrolling through a basket of breadsticks. It was as close to love at first sight as I have ever experienced. You looked really annoyed and kept checking your phone, so I figured you were waiting on someone. So, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to pretend that I was on the wrong date.”

Taekwoon blinks back at him. “That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I wasn’t even waiting on a date, I was waiting on a friend whose musical rehearsal ran late, so it was an unintentional ditching.”  
“I couldn’t just let you sit there and become a breadstick,” Hakyeon pouted.

“So you decided to lie to me?”

“You decided to lie to me too!”

Taekwoon schools his face back into his mask of indifference causing Hakyeon to burst into laughter. “Oh my god, we are both idiots, aren’t we?” Hakyeon’s laugh is loud and clear and causes Taekwoon to crack a smile of his own.

“Seems like it.”

“Can we please go on an intentional date sometime?” Hakyeon askes taking Taekwoon’s hand under the table and threading their fingers together.

“Sure, but only if I get more breadsticks.”

“As many as you want,” Hakyeon replies and squeezes Taekwoon’s hand gently and swoops in to give him a quick kiss.

Taekwoon makes a noise of surprise, then presses back into the kiss.

They break apart, faces flushing as the waitress walks by and gives them a beaming smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about how elementary education works in South Korea, so please forgive any inaccuracies. I also googled "craft stores in South Korea" and that's how I got ArtBox, so if that's not a real thing, sorry!
> 
> As usual, let, please let me know if anything feels weird or I missed a glaring typo. I read back through this myself, but my brain sees what it wants to. Find me on twitter @thoroughlynerdy if you're so inclined. Thanks for reading!


End file.
